Courses
In all of our degree programs, NYU Silver integrates critical theories and social justice perspectives across the curriculum, and offers a range of required and elective courses that are centered on diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Required Courses
BS and MSW
This course centers on expanding the student’s understanding of the meaning of race, ethnicity, class, gender, and culture, as well as the concepts of prejudice, discrimination, oppression, stigma, and stereotyping. Racism, particularly as it impacts on personal, professional, institutional, and societal levels, is studied. Special attention is given to the experiences of African Americans and Latino/as in US society in general and in the New York City metropolitan area in particular. Within an integrative perspective, implications for direct and indirect social work practice are explored. Specifically, the importance of ethnoculturally competent practice for the individual worker and the design of service delivery systems are covered.
DSW
This course introduces a variety of currently debated theories of human rights and social justice and explores their relationship to mental health and to clinical intervention as practiced by social workers. The course also touches on the challenge of global justice across cultures and national boundaries.
PhD
This required course emphasizes the roles that social issues, values, power, politics, the economy, discrimination, and advocacy play in the dynamic policy making and implementation environment. It provides students with the policy related competencies and practice skills for conducting research-informed policy analysis and advocating for policy change.
This course seeks to provide students with the knowledge and tools to conduct rigorous research that addresses dimensions of human diversity, including social identities (e.g., race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation), language, and various forms of culture. Adopting culturally-informed and critical perspectives on social science research, this course guides students towards developing a reflexive stance towards considering issues related to power, positionality, and representation in knowledge production.
Selected Elective Courses
BS
This course examines the historical and contemporary implications of inequality that have persisted especially in the United States, with some emphasis on other industrialized countries. In addition, this course will provide an overview of the causes and consequences of economic and social inequality and how it is reproduced throughout society.
Students in this course study the words, deeds, and stories of many people considered to be social justice laborers and peacemakers. They question their motives and actions. They ask one another how their work contributes to global justice and peace, and what they have to teach us as engaged citizens in our contemporary society.
This theoretical and experiential course examines the concept of social justice, dating back to Roman Catholic teachings by St. Thomas Aquinas regarding poverty and leading up to modern day umbrella movements that include race, class, gender, sexual orientation, ability, national origin, first language, and the ways in which ideas about social justice have shifted. This will include intersections with global human rights movements, evangelicalism, and intersectionality regarding identity politics.
MSW
This course seeks to prepare students to engage in advocacy practice oriented towards social justice. Students will receive an overview of the historical roots of advocacy in the social work profession and the role of structural racism, oppression, and marginalization in contemporary social injustices. Students will also learn how to apply Hoefer’s Unified Model of Advocacy Practice in their work with clients or communities.
This course aims to prepare students for competency in micro and macro practice with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people by providing a deeper understanding of the history and construction of sexual and gender minority identities and communities around the world. It also examines the experience of minority stress by members of these populations, including sources of stress and sources of support in families and communities. Intersectionality, social and economic justice, and a global perspective provide a framework for understanding these issues.
This course provides students with an opportunity to develop engagement, assessment, and intervention skills in individual, family, and group work with urban youth (aged 11–21). The course focuses on practice within a wide range of government and agency-based settings, including: prevention, school, mental health, foster care, criminal justice, and residential programs. There is a focus on understanding the ways in which racism and other forms of oppression can impact both adolescent development and social service delivery systems.
This course examines a broad range of theories and contemporary issues inaging that relate to social work practice with older adults and their families. Domains of inquiry include biological, psychological, and sociological perspectives of aging and older adults. There is a critical examination of the social constructions of old age, social work values and ethics, and social work practice within an aging society at the individual, community, and institutional level.